THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



pulsion. There is, also, where great numbers are aggregated, a mass 

 leadership regardless of wealth. Generally this represents organized 

 and predatory poverty." 



"We must have the richest training. The greatest schools for the 

 human race are our homes and the common schools — not our 

 colleges and universities — greatest in amount and value of the 

 knowledge acquired. A country home, be it ever so plain, with a 

 father and mother of sense and gentle culture, is nature's university, 

 and is more richly endowed for the training of youth than Yale or 

 Harvard." 



"Peerless among all teachers is that high priestess of the home, 

 whom we know as mother. She inspires as well as instructs. Next 

 to her in work and worth are the common school teachers. They 

 supplement the home training and lay the foundations of knowledge 

 along the lines of wisdom. The greatests event in human life is the 

 awakening of the infant intellect." 



"We all recognize the great value of higher education and believe 

 in colleges and universities. They have their work and it is noble; 

 but it is just as out of place to put part of a university into a common 

 school as to put a common school into a university. A university can 

 only be a tandem attachment — what is needed is to widen the com- 

 mon schools by broader instruction in common things. The young 

 farmer who breaks his harness upon a lonely road blesses the teacher 

 who taught him to always carry an extra string. Any quantity of 

 Roman history in the head is not equal to a string in the pocket for 

 mending broken harness. A landlord sometimes attempts to supple- 

 ment deficiencies in food and service by a band of music, but there is 

 no music for a hungry man like a well-cooked meal." 



"The greatest of all acquisitions is common sense. Common 

 sense is simply a wide and perfect knowledge of common things and 

 how to use them." 



"Fundamental to all this and infinitely more important is the 

 crop of boys and girls in the country; the kind of men and women 

 bom, raised and molded under rural conditions. Shall they be 

 great, strong, earnest, true and potential characters, or shall they be 

 weak and trifling? 



"Some families have been intellectual and vigorous for genera- 

 tions; some nations inherit and transmit potency. Are these due 



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